by Leslie Muñoz

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) announced on Sept. 29 that another migrant has died in Canada’s contentious immigrant detention system.

Joseph Charles Dunn Young passed away on Sept. 27 at the Niagara Detention Centre, a provincial maximum security facility located in Thorold, Ontario, which primarily services criminalized non-CBSA inmates.

An inquest has been called by the Ontario Coroner’s office to investigate the death.

A news release from the Niagara Regional Police Service states that the migrant detainee’s “injuries were not suspected to be the result of foul play.”

Maclean’s reported that Young committed suicide after a detention review hearing with the Immigration and Refugee Board determined he had to remain behind bars. Canada does not have a policy prohibiting indefinite migrant detention.

The St. Catharines Standard reported that Young was sent to the Greater Niagara General Hospital in critical condition on Sept. 22., a week before his death.

They also indicated that officials “refuse[d] to say why the man was behind bars or for how long he had been there.”

In addition, the Standard reported that media inquiries directed at the detention centre were being redirected to the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Facilities, instead of the CBSA.

This highlights the gaps created by CBSA, as well as the Harper government’s off-loading of uncharged migrant detainees onto the provinces. The death also draws attention to the  dehumanizing conditions characterising migrant detention.

“The death shows that the [immigration] system is broken and that [migrant] rights are not protected as they should be,” said Deepan Budlakoti, a migrant justice organizer involved with No One is Illegal-Ottawa. He also said that people in Canada need to fight for the rights of all.

The Canadian Press reports that the Red Cross — the humanitarian organization responsible for monitoring CBSA’s detention practices — has criticized Canada’s migrant detention facilities because of its “triple-bunked cells, lack of support for detained children, and inadequate mental health care.”

The Red Cross has also criticized the practice of holding immigrants in provincial jails, according to the Canadian Press.

CBSA has three Immigrant Holding Centres specifically intended for migrant detainees because they are not considered criminals or offenders under Canadian law.

These detention facilities are often at full capacity due to the intensification of Canada’s immigration and regularization restrictions as well as the government’s increased reliance on detention for migrants.

Young is not the first person to quietly perish in Canada’s migrant detention system. The facilities used to hold detainees have been described as “dungeon-like” by sources ranging from rabble.ca to the Globe and Mail, and their corridors have seen numerous unnecessary migrant deaths.

Jan Szamko, a Roma refugee who was detained in the Toronto West Detention Centre, died while imprisoned in 2009.

Lucia Vega Jimenez, who had been surviving without status in Vancouver before she was detained, died while imprisoned in 2013.

Rabble.ca also reports that a month after Jimenez’ death, a young Haitian woman imprisoned at the Vancouver Immigrant Holding Centre reached out to migrant justice support groups seeking medical advice following a miscarriage.

These cases, and those of others who have died, stand as evidence of the need to change the way the state interacts with migrants who have made their way to Canada.

This article first appeared in the Leveller Vol. 7, No. 2 (Oct/Nov 2014).